Both are worth the read, and below I summarize some of the big take-aways.
SaaS AE Metrics & Compensation Report
You need SDRs. 81% of companies use SDRs, even smaller ones. “The inflection point for SDR support is driven by ACV. Somewhere between $515K ACV companies move from we can’t afford SDRs to we can’t afford not to have them. Laggards are more than twice as likely to not deploy SDRs.”
As you mature, you have distinct sales roles. “59% of companies support the customer lifecycle with at least three distinct sales roles — SDRs, AEs, and CSMs (AMs, Renewal Reps, etc.). When we remove companies under $5M in revenues, that number rises to 67%. Companies above $50M are 1.8X as likely to segment engage, land, and expand into 3+ distinct roles “
Remote is in. 37% of open roles are fully remote, 47% are a blend, and only 5% are in the office full-time.
Ramp time is up. “Average ramp times sits at 5.3 months. This is a significant increase over 2020’s result of 4.3 months.”
64 activities per day. On median there are 18 phone activities, 25 emails, 13 Linkedin actions, and 8 other.
Median earnings. On target median is $167k split 54/46 between base and commission. “Continuing a decade+ trend, median OTE rose to record highs in 2022. While quotas have increased at roughly 2% annually, OTEs have risen at more than 5% CAGR over that same period.” Regarding commissions, “at 100% of quota, the median commission rate is 10.3% of ACV.”
Reporting to sales. 68% of SDR’s report to the head of sales as opposed to marketing. However, “a point worth mentioning is that inbound teams are roughly twice as likely to report to Marketing as blended or outbound groups.”
Remote heavy. “In 2018, 48% of companies reported reps in the same role working in different locations. Due to COVID/remote/WFH, that number increased to 64%. Note that 23% of companies report plans for “fully remote” SDR groups for the foreseeable future. That was nearly unthinkable just a few years ago.”
Experience at hire. SDR’s hired today have only 1.2 years of experience. In 2010 it was 2.5 years.
Promotions. 93% of companies have a path for an SDR to become an AE. “For those respondents with an SDR-to-AE promotion path, reps spend an average of 17.5 months in the SDR role prior to promotion.”
SDR salaries. SDR’s total comp is $76k of which $50k is base salary.
Dials per day. The average is 40 dials per day leading to 4.4 quality conversations per day. “By definition, phone-centric groups average higher dials per day. Interestingly, they also report 2.1X as many average QCs per day.” SDRs make 10.6 attempts per prospect.
Rep to leader ratio. The number of SDRs reporting to a manager is 8 on average. The leader comp is $128k on average.
sammy@blossomstreetventures.comhttps://blossomstreetventures.com/metrics/